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Arcasan Armed Forces
The Armed Forces of Arcas are the armed forces of the Republic of Arcas. The Armed Forces consists of three professional uniformed services: The Rike Here (National Army), Folk Mere (The Republican Navy), and the Folk Liftmiht (Republican Air Force). The Commander-in-Chief of Arcas's Armed Forces is the Arcasan Stolamn, Under Arcasan constitutional law, the armed forces are subordinate to the Stolmanship. The armed forces are managed by the Defence Council, headed by the Eoward. The Arcasan Armed Forces are charged with protecting the Arcas, its overseas territories and dependencies, as well as promoting Arcas's wider security interests. Rike Here The oldest service of Arcas, with a history of over four thousand years. The army was formed on 79 Winter 943 WE during the Eight Cities War between Arcas/Ernas and the six cities of the Darly Pact. After the war the eight cities and Pry agreed to the Pry Pact that established limits to the nations and a semi-unified force. For every five Arcasan men under arms, Ernas and Pry were allowed three and the losers of the war were allowed one, limiting their power severely. Thus Arcas and Ernas needed to field large armies to prevent their former enemies from overwhelming them. creating the first standing Arcasan Here. The Rike Here would continue to fight throughout the Wyric Era helping ensure Arcasan supremacy. Under the Wyrics their numbers never rose higher than a few thousands. However under Gladwin Cerdef I they experienced a huge increase and during the battle of White Oak Forest they numbered over ten thousand, forming the largest part of the Arcasan forces. After the battle and subsequent conquest they became the only army in Arcas. However the peace under the Cerdefs meant that their force was never much larger than ten thousand, divided into ten fierds (based on a Galric term for soldiers under a lord). Each fierd was only about a thousand men. The Galric invasion badly mauled them and by the last years only left three fierds, The 1st, 7th, and 9th fierds were left. What the army considers one of (if not its greatest) moments was the Battle of Arcas. A force of five thousand Galrics assaulted the city and over the course of three days were repelled by the 7th Fierd (the others were out in the field during the fighting). The fierd suffered massive casualties and the surviving officers formed the core of the officers that rebelled against the King. After the coup the Here grew exponentially as recruits and defeated enemies swelled their ranks. By the time of Eric Yndsen II the fierds were back to ten fierds, but each numbered around ten thousand men. After the victory the fierds spread out under their various general to achieve more glory for the empire. Originally they were under the purview of the Krigster's Eoward, but as the empire expanded it became harder to keep track of the fierds. Eventually every general was a virtual warlord with free reign over as many men as he could control. The Krigsters would use this to their advantage, playing rivals against each other and marrying daughters to the best generals. This continued until the reforms of Wilem Nedson, a famous general, whose son Wilem Yndsen would become Krigster. He changed many things, he standardized fierd formation, limited acceptance, reigned in generals by requiring new fierds to be raised with Krigster permission, and most importantly he set a limit of three fierds per general. The fierds' effectiveness and acceptance of foreigners as auxiliaries would be its undoing. It conquered more land than it could govern or hold properly and its foreign soldiers rebelled, timed with religious rebellions would spell the end of Arcasan dominance. The proud fierds were pushed back, having to fight on all sides until they were finally able to return to Arcas proper, at under half of their original strength. Defeat seemed inevitable as its enemies closed around, however the ascension of Wilem Armis I to the throne changed this. He instituted many controversial reforms such as whipping soldiers for cowardice and hanging officers for the same offence. This forced the fierds to hold the line and managed to drive the enemy back. Armis acknowledged that the empire was gone and that Arcas was once more a kingdom among many. He strived to turn Arcas into a major power. Over the centuries the fierds traded in the sword and shield for the musket and bayonet and once more forged an empire to fear, but this one spanned the globe, across all five continents. The Arcasan Revolution divided the here like it did to many institutions. Many of the officers remained monarchist, but the enlisted soldiers often joined the republic. The fighting was bloody and many friends found themselves on different sides of the war. By the time the dust settled, the republicans emerged victorious. The last commander of the monarchical army officially recognized the republican forces as the true army of Arcas, erasing all doubt of their validity. After the war, whereas the navy took the title of Folk Mere, the army was allowed to retain the name Rike Here, allowing them to keep their millennia old name. The Republican Era was a grand time for the army, it became seen as a great pillar of the nation and attained a great respect. The Revolution also introduced several reforms that remain a part of the army to this day. Among the most important was the reintroduction of the fierds. Under the Armis, the loss of the empire meant that many of the institutions of the Imperial Army had to be forgotten. Among them was the end of the practice of Fierds as a combat unit. All except for the 7th Fierd were dissolved with the seventh being hugely shrunken to a skeleton force to serve the King. Eventually even the seventh was disbanded in favor. When standing armies returned as the base of combat, the Armis choose to use the regiment and battalion style of other nations in the form of Fachs and Flocs. The Republicans, seeking to play up their legacy to the Yndsen decided to reintroduce the concept of the Fierds with their first unit being a Throng and the first three (the original throng was a roughly thousand man unit of soldiers and took ten to equal a full Fierd whereas the Folk Throng was composed of many more soldiers and only needed three of four for a Fierd) formed the reborn and renamed 7th Folk Fierd, a direct successor to the last Imperial Fierd. Another important reform is the introduction of the Folk Guard. The Guard was formed from the earliest days of the republic before Smith defected. They were volunteers that took up arms to defend the newly created republic. The Folk Guard is both a part of the army and very distinct. They maintain many military traditions and many are former members of the army, but are under the command of the Folkmoot through the Inner Thegy as opposed to the army under the command of the Stolman through the Eoward. While the Rike Here takes an oath to the nation as a whole, the Folk Guard takes an oath to the republican institutions of the government. This has caused the occasional clash between the the two sides, but they can usually function well together. Currently Arcas maintains two throngs of Folk Guards which remains under the control of Inner Thegy and both are well known for their fierce devotion to the Republic. The Arcas Civil War of 93 RE (1526 AE) would be the greatest test of the here. Civil wars had not been uncommon in previous eras and the soldiers fought on both sides, but never would it be as divided as it was in this moment. The republicans divided control of the army into two halves, the Eoward handled the administration and the Great Ealdor, who acted as commander of the here and handled strategy and tactics. Eventually Great Ealdor Heimrich Lester decided that the civilian government was useless and lead nine of the eighteen divisions to war. The other nine remained loyal and took up arms for the government. A four year war would ensue. Both sides had some support and thousands flocked to serve under each banner. By the end of the war the government loyalists had emerged victorious and the nine traitor divisions were stricken from record and their numbers abolished. The other nine remain as divisions to this day with long celebrated histories. The war had drastically changed the structure of the here. The title of Great Ealdor was abolished and instead an Ealdor Staff with a rotating staff of generals pulled from the divisions and "Middle Lead" (the title given to the administrative center of the here that also controls the Special Forces and Military Intelligence). Individuality was encouraged among the divisions with each becoming an army unto itself, charged with maintaining their own numbers and equipment. Another key addition was Morale Officer, assigned from Middle Lead these officers have a three key functions: ensure that the units they are assigned to stay loyal to the republic, handle disciplinary issues, and maintain morale. While originally hated and loathed, the position came to be respected and liked. Morale Officers are more likely to organize trips and events than they are to kill anyone. Indeed they can only summarily execute with direct orders from either the division commander or Middle Lead after a state of emergency has been declared by the Stolman which in turn needs approval from both Moots. Because of these stringent requirements no Morale Officer has ever been given leave to use this power (any uses of execution without leave is treated as murder with the offender punished accordingly). Arcer.jpg|Cerdef Era Legionnaire Arynd.jpg|Yndsen Era Legionnaires Ararmis.jpg|Armis Era Legionnaire Ararmmus.jpg|Revolutionary Armis Musketmen Arrepmus.png|Revolutionary Republican Musketmen Arrepmuslat.jpg|Civil War Era Soldiers Arrepwwii.jpg|Turn of the century Soldiers Arrepmod.JPEG|Modern day Soldiers training Folk Mere The Folk Navy is the second oldest service of Arcas. However, for most of the Navy's existence it was merely the marine arm of the Arcasan Army. As most of Arcas's conquests were on land, the Navy largely found itself as a ferrying service or anti-piracy force. The Arcasan Here Fleet (it's original name) was officially founded after the unification of Arcas, with the bulk of its force coming from Pry. Most of the Navy was overwhelmed during the Galric invasion with many ships sunk or captured, the few surviving ships were trapped in Arcas. After the Yndsen coup the navy was finally able to go back on the offensive with dozens of new ships out for Galric blood, using pack tactics that had sunk many Arcasan ships decades ago. This greatness was short lived, after the here was able to get a foothold in Aredia Minor, it once again found itself as merely an arm of the here. Despite this it remained the largest navy in Aredia for most of the Yndsen Era through the sheer size and wealth of the empire. It mostly fought against pirates, but would occasionally blockade coasts to assist the here. When it had to confront an powerful navy, it often simply overwhelmed them with numbers or made use of marines in boarding actions to make up for any failings in quality. Soldiers on ships were fairly common, but gained official recognition during the Galric invasion to combat Galric raiders. In the Yndsen Era they became a powerful equalizer in naval encounters. Ships of this era were often divided into two groups, ships designed for speed that could quickly reach enemy ships and force boarding, or large ships that acted as transports. During the fall the Navy was able to stay largely intact, allowing Arcas to remain a naval power, however many surviving ships were sold, destroyed, or left to rot as the smaller Arcas could simply not afford to care for that many ships. With the discovery of new continents and the beginning of colonization, the navy finally found itself a purpose in defending the new vast trade routes and staking claims. In recognition of this, Krigster Robert Armis IV officially separated the navy for the army with the creation of the King's Meer. The new navy moved quickly to make itself as valuable as possible with a huge expansion in size. Its crowning moment was the invasion of Galria when it managed to ferry two full fierds onto the Galric peninsula without the Durerans finding out until after landfall. However the navy always remained as the lesser of the two and much of its officer corp was filled with commoners who were limited by Frod's acts. Thus when the revolution started much of the navy defected to the republicans and ensured steady supply lines to republican groups. The Folk Mere is fairly far removed from its predecessor, even adopting a completely different flag. They adopted the wolf as their symbol partly as a nod to the republican government which identified itself with the wolf and partly as a nod to its preference of using wolf pack tactics in combat. The circle that bisects the wolf's eyes represents the horizon of the ocean and sky. The modern navy is once more a powerhouse that while small retains a level of power and respect throughout the world that its past selves could only dream of. The Folk Mereguards maintains six combat brigades and remains a highly skilled commando unit that operates around the world as the navy's land arm. Folk Liftmiht Category:Military